A taste of Danish
For any beer aficionado, a visit to Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark is a must. Andrew Marshall reports
Don’t forget your ticket for some complimentary beers,” says the attendant inside the world-famous Carlsberg Brewery as I begin my introduction into the beer and bar culture of Copenhagen, Scandinavia’s liveliest and most cosmopolitan city.
The Carlsberg Visitor’s Centre offers a free selfguided tour of Gamle Carlsberg, the oldest part of the Carlsberg Brewery dating from 1847, with exhibits showing beer production and its history.
In fact Danish beer dates back further than you’d expect, after a girl was discovered in a peat bog clutching a jug of well-aged brew and was carbondated to 1370BC. The Carlsberg Brewery was founded by J.C. Jacobsen who began his career in the early 1800s working in his father’s small brewery.
In Denmark at the time, only top fermented beer was brewed and after tasting a rich bottom fermented Bavarian beer at a merchant’s shop, the young Jacobsen became obsessed with developing a Danish beer along the Bavarian tradition.
Carlsberg Brewery, the largest exporting brewery in Europe, was the very successful result.
The tour route is well-provided with signs featuring photographs and explanatory text in both Danish and English, exhibiting objects from past and present, bringing the old ways of brewing to life while still impressing the visitor with modern technology using video clips that show production methods of today. There is quite a bit to see.
En-route you pass a steam engine that revolutionised early industrial beer production, antique cop.....
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By Andrew Marshall
Section : Beer Journeys
Page number : 44
